enewton@brightedge.com

M Posted 9 years 9 months ago

t 9 min read

We invite you to join the webinar to learn more about the Ultimate SEO Dashboard for CMOs on July 21 at 10am PST, 1pm EST. CMOs, do you want to know what SEO elements you should be keeping an eye on? SEO professionals, want to make your SEO program results command high-level interest and support? SEO requires time. It requires careful analytics and considerable number crunching to arrive at quantifiable results. This can be tedious and difficult for non-SEOs to follow and remain engaged.

This webinar is going to show you how to make this process easy. Learn how to create an SEO dashboard that will captivate and educate CMOs to reveal the true value and ROI of SEO. Join Jeff Selig, VP Media, Search, and Analytics at Overdrive Interactive for a webinar where he will share his proven BrightEdge SEO dashboard that dazzles CMOs and makes heroes out of SEO pros. The webinar will be co-hosted by Erik Newton, VP of Demand Generation at BrightEdge. By giving us just one hour of your time, we will teach you:

• What SEO metrics your leadership and management really care about so they understand your progress
• How to report on your campaigns so that your CMO begins to value SEO and what it can do for the brand
• How you can improve your fact-based storytelling so that you will keep your leadership engaged during presentations
• How you can use these reports to secure more resources for your SEO efforts.

If you are a CMO, you will learn:

• What metrics you and your SEOs need to be paying attention to in order to gauge success
• The impact that your team’s SEO efforts have on your brand’s revenue and growth
• How you can tell if your investment in modern marketing is paying off.

Those who attend the webinar will also have the opportunity to secure a copy of a dashboard template and white paper from Overdrive, helping you take your SEO presentation even further.  

Register Now

Andy Betts

M Posted 9 years 9 months ago

t 9 min read

BrightEdge has great pleasure in announcing that the Share16 content and agenda is live! Recognized by Forbes and Inc.com as a must-attend conference – this year Share16 welcomes leading brand speakers from Google, YouTube, Microsoft, REI, Home Depot, Marriott, Oracle, Wiley, and many more. Whether you want to learn more about upcoming advanced SEO and content marketing sessions, discover new digital marketing best practices and elevate your personal and professional career then Share16 is the place to be.

At Share16 (my 5^th year as the Content and Speaker Chair!) we are honored to host speakers, industry leaders, and brands from such diverse industries as retail, hospitality, software, and many more. With an unbelievable lineup of keynote presenters and sessions new and enhanced additions like our hands-on learning labs, BrightEdge University and a whole track dedicated to career development Share16 the biggest and best year yet. Below is an overview of the main tracks and session content at Share16. Further detail can be found over on the Share16 website and, over the coming month, we will be updating the agenda with speakers and speaker information.

Industry Keynotes

• Digital Centers of Excellence
• Marketing Technology Innovation
• Organization Culture and Design
• Marketing Leadership case studies from technology leaders

Search Advancement Track

While organic search drives 51% of website traffic, the rules are constantly changing, with Google making over 600 algorithm changes each year. In order to stay ahead, search professionals must stay on top of the latest technology trends and advanced search marketing techniques. The Search Advancement Track focuses on search strategies and technical tactics that enable you to maximize the impact of your largest digital channel. Industry experts will share their frameworks for success aimed at balancing technology acumen with strategic execution. Topics include advanced technical, global, mobile, and hybrid SEO and PPC methodologies to ensure you stay ahead in your competitive environment. Algorithmic Change and Response: SERP positioning and SEM alignment Advanced Mobile Optimization: Accelerated Mobile Performance Data Sources and Data Sets: Mastering Analytics and Integrations Technical Site Configuration: SEO Friendly Design, Build & Infrastructure Global, Local and Mobile Search: SEO, PPC and Social Synergy Insights from In-house experts: Technical Tactics & Conversion Strategies  

Content Optimization and Digital Integration Track

Nearly all marketers now consider digital marketing a core part of larger marketing operations. And content marketing is set to become a $300B+ industry by 2019. In today’s fast evolving digital marketing economy, it’s critical for marketers to master the paths to conversion that now span multiple digital marketing channels. The Content Optimization and Digital Marketing Track focuses on the strategies to design and measure the effectiveness of content, to drive conversion across digital channels and support desired business outcomes. Experts will discuss key creation, optimization and measurement strategies that are built for scale and foster greater cross-channel collaboration. Intelligent Content for the Customer Journey: Engagement & Experiences The Content Management Cycle: Optimizing Content for Scale & Efficiency Content Metrics That Matter: Traffic, Engagement, Conversion and Revenue Search, Social & Content Marketing Trifecta: Digital Branding & PR Managing Multiple Digital Channels: Finding The Perfect Mix Staying Ahead of Your Digital Competition: Share of Voice & Share of Market  

Business and Career Elevation Track

Gartner predicted that by 2017, CMOs will spend more on IT than CIOs. The success of digital marketing campaigns and the opportunity for marketers to obtain career advancement hinge on mastery of People, Process, and Technology. Developing skill sets and digital acumen across these three areas is critical for marketers who want to develop into leaders and drive overall business performance. The Business and Career Elevation Track focuses on case studies and real-world examples of business and professional transformation. Organizational leaders and departmental heads will share insights and tips on how you can transition from online practitioner to cross-functional, organizational leader. The Digital Marketing Maturity Model: People, Process & Technology Creative Storytelling & Evangelizing Success: Selling Ideas and Building Business Cases Digital Career Success Stories: From Practitioner to Organizational Leader The Digital Marketing Mind: The Psychology of Self Development Organizational Design: Building Digital Centers of Excellence Building an Extended Team: Working with Agencies and Contractors  

Additional Sessions 

The Share16 team will also be adding additional sessions (x3) based on demand over the coming months. Stay tuned for further speaker and session updates throughout July! Note: final session titles subject to change at the discretion of BrightEdge and the speakers. Partner hands-on labs feature practical experience using the partner’s technology to help solve your marketing challenges. Monday Evening: Welcome Reception Network with BrightEdge executives and strategic partners showcasing cutting edge solutions that assist you in elevating performance. Drinks and light appetizers will be served. Solutions Showcase Learn more about the latest products and services from BrightEdge and partners. Monday Night: Dine-Arounds Experience the vibrant San Francisco restaurant scene and start the dialogue with like-minded peers at Share16 dine-arounds.

Tickets are limited – Book your place alongside the Worlds best brands now!

To avoid disappointment (tickets are limited), we highly recommend you register now and book your place in the Share community.

Register for Share16

Venue Details October 24 to 26, 2016 Westin St. Francis, Union Square, San Francisco

Thank you to our Share16 sponsors

Gold Sponsor: 97^th Floor is a digital marketing agency fueled by creativity and innovation. They truly believe that in a digital world companies are only limited by their imaginations. They thrive in ideation, creation, and execution. A full-service team that understands the connection between content and customers.

Silver Sponsors: Majestic – With a track record of trusted and reliable data, Majestic is the biggest and freshest backlink database which can help you bridge the gap to your competitors. Search Laboratory – A global customer acquisition agency, helping clients grow internationally through SEO, SEM, Online PR, Social Media and Programmatic Display in 20+ languages. BFO (Be Found Online) – An international team of digital marketing experts. We specialize in delivering results through Search, Display, Content Marketing, Social Media and Analytics. Revana Digital – Revolutionizing performance marketing through our ability to unite omni-channel audience data to create actionable insights and maximize results for enterprise clients. Noble Studios – An award-winning digital marketing agency specializing in web design and development, online marketing, social media, and analytics. Merkle – The nation’s largest and fastest-growing performance marketing agency. Employing data-driven strategies, Merkle combines marketing, technical, analytical and creative disciplines to offer integrated customer relationship management strategy and customer marketing solutions.

A BrightEdger

M Posted 9 years 9 months ago

t 9 min read

This is part two in the micro-moments series. Last time we talked, we focused on “I want to go,” and how it closely connected to the local three pack. Towards the end of the post I mentioned how to apply it to other micro-moments as well. Today, we'll shift focus to the "I want to know" micro-moment.

The "I Want To Know" Micro-Moment

This is one of the most common micro-moments that we see in the search landscape. In fact, “I want to know” spurred the original search intent since the days of ten blue links and even before. This micro-moment represents users who are looking for information on a topic without a specific business related intention. These users search to find content that answers their question clearly and accurately. Once they have this information they can progress from "I want to know" and to the next micro-moment where they can use the answer they got to decide what to do next. "I want to know" is a very strong mobile micro-moment as well as a traditional type of desktop search. Use of mobile phones to find answers to questions or to pull up additional information to support a conversation has become commonplace. The board room, the park bench, and the dinner table make up locations that see heavy use of mobile search and the "know" micro-moment in particular.

SERP Features

Google seeks to provide users with clear answers to their questions. It might seem that this micro-moment is the catch-all for keywords which don’t belong to another micro-moment. However, Google's strategy indicates otherwise. A number of distinct SERP features indicate that Google believes a given keyword belongs to the “I want to know” micro-moment. If Google provides distinct and different SERP features, they see different user intentions on those keywords. Here are some of the SERP features that Google uses to provide information in response to "know" search queries.

Quick Answers

Quick Answers is a very popular SERP feature that does what it says on the tin - answers a question with a short blurb of content. You have probably seen it before even if you weren't aware of it a the time. Here's what it looks like:

This is probably the most intuitive feature of all for this micro-moment. Google answers the user's question directly. It doesn’t carry any additional context besides the answer to the question and an attribution link to the page which provided the content. This shows that Google understands that users searching this keyword are looking for a piece of information.

Knowledge Graph

Knowledge Graphs help Google provide critical information about a specific object. They have become more common lately as Google has built out their understanding of different object. Here's what a Knowledge graph card looks like as a quick example. Knowledge Graphs are provided when the query identifies a specific object (usually a person or a place). This SERP feature differs as it doesn't always have such a clean mapping to the source website as this example does. The example pulls from Wikipedia, but Knowledge Graph cards focused on brands are often not sourced from the brand website directly and don't have a clear link to the site. Knowing this, Knowledge graph is a bit more difficult to deal with in the context of digital marketing. However, it does clearly serve the purpose of answering user questions and providing information aligned with the "know" micro-moment.

Conclusion

The "I want to know" micro-moment is a huge and very common micro-moment. Google does their best to identify these situations, and provide specific result types that will provide the best experience for their users. This helps simplify the marketer's job. Using the SERP features as a guide, it is possible to understand what micro-moments a keyword belongs to. Then you can create and execute a content strategy that allows you to build better content based on what users seek in any situation.

enewton@brightedge.com

M Posted 9 years 9 months ago

t 9 min read

Mobile usage is huge. Google announced in 2015 that more than half of the searches performed are now on mobile devices. Mobile also represents 65 percent of all digital media time. Customers are not just using mobile phones to look up addresses, either. In 2015, m-commerce grew an estimated 3 times faster than the rest of e-commerce. Consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea of using mobile devices for their online shopping. By 2018, mobile shoppers are expected to spend $600 billion, which is four times the amount spent from mobile devices in 2014. As mobile becomes an increasingly critical part of the online experience, brands cannot afford to miss out. Yet, despite the impressive growth seen in the adaptation of mobile by users, there seems to be a massive disconnect between mobile users and mobile marketing. A recent survey found the following:

• Fifty-six percent of companies describe their mobile advertising as, “at best, a bolt-on to desktop-focused activities”
• Only 3 percent say that they are getting ‘excellent’ ROI from overall mobile advertising
• Twenty-five percent say that they do not plan their mobile advertising based upon the average mobile behavior of their consumers
• Only 22 percent of brands say they are at least ‘somewhat’ using hyperlocal advertising to its fullest potential

Despite the growth in mobile and the increasing importance of m-commerce, the majority of brands are still failing to effectively market to this key audience.

Why does this disparity exist in mobile marketing?

It is easy to point out the disparity between where modern customers seek out brands and where those companies invest their ad budgets. To begin to solve the problem, we need to uncover the reasons why this is happening. In the survey cited above, many companies indicated that they simply did not believe that customers were converting on mobile. They did not see mobile as a primary means of interacting with customers as they neared conversion. The recent growth in m-commerce, however, seems to disprove this theory. When brands were asked about the biggest challenges that made it difficult for them to take a strong stance in the mobile marketing arena, many brands also mentioned problems with data sources, attribution and integrating the different channels. It is important for organizations to recognize that the tremendous gap between the devices that customers are using to go online and where brands are targeting prospects means that there is now an enormous opportunity in mobile marketing for the brands that are willing to seize it.

How to drive your mobile marketing forward

Understand what your prospects are doing on mobile

Before you can move forward with a mobile campaign, you need to have a firm understanding of how mobile customers behave on your website and what your prospects seek online. Investigating keywords specifically for mobile search can offer you insight into what on-the-go prospects want to see when looking for information about your industry. You will be able to identify differences between how customers on mobile devices conduct searches compared to desktop and the types of content that are most appealing to them when they land on the site. Remember the importance of the micro-moment on mobile. According to Google these are:  

Intent-driven moments of decision-making and preference-shaping that occur throughout the entire consumer journey

  The search engine leader has broken these actions down into four main categories:

• The I-want-to-know moment
• The I-want-to-go moment
• The I-want-to-buy moment
• The I-want-to-do moment

Consider which categories apply most to your brand and the content you will be producing. Research keywords that would tie in nicely with these particular categories. If you are a BrightEdge user, then uncovering this valuable information can be straightforward.

1. Visit the Data Cube to perform keyword research. To the left of the search bar you can change the search engine you want to use - select Google United States - Smartphone. This will provide you with the data applicable to mobile searches. Identify keywords for topics that are the most popular for mobile users.
2. Under Page Reporting and Keyword Reporting you can again adjust the search engine to be Google United States - Smartphone. This will offer you insight into how your keywords and your individual pages are performing with mobile users. Look for patterns, such as formats or topics, that seem to guide the success or failure of your pages on mobile.
3. Use the StoryBuilder to create dashboards dedicated towards your mobile efforts. You can create charts that will isolate which pages are driving the most mobile traffic as well as mobile versus desktop performance.

In August 2016, we will also be introducing new capabilities that will allow you to monitor which content is ready for AMP, where Top Stories and AMP content are appearing, and how AMP, mobile, and the micro-moment are impacting your brand and revenue.

Capitalize on local optimization

Customers on mobile are often looking for local information, so a strong local presence can positively impact shopping behavior. One study found that as many as 88 percent of smartphone users will make local searches from mobile. They also found that a local search on mobile was twice as likely to result in a purchase than a local search on desktop and that 78 percent of local-mobile searches resulted in a purchase. To meet the needs of these customers, your website needs to be fully optimized for local. This includes:

• Claiming your business on Google
• Developing high-quality content to improve engagement metrics
• Attracting backlinks with a strong distribution strategy and efforts to write guest posts
• Include your business in online listings and ensure the consistency with the information you include - particularly your Name, Address, and phone number
• Work to attract positive reviews by making it easy for satisfied customers - consider including a link in follow-up emails after a purchase or otherwise letting them know their opinion is valued.

Create mobile marketing campaigns

Your mobile marketing campaign should be designed to target your mobile prospects based specifically on the behavior they exhibit while on their mobile devices. You will need to use your keyword and behavior research to appropriately target your ideas. Remember that with mobile, local search and the micro-moment will be significant, so include these ideas in your keywords. Create mobile campaigns that focus on actions applicable to the mobile user, creating buttons that are large enough to read and easy to click on a small screen. Banners, for example, tend to be frustrating and hard to read on mobile. Customize your CTA to the experience that your prospects are having on the mobile site. Mobile marketing is an increasingly important part of any successful mobile marketing campaign, and thus is a critical part of the future of any successful promotional campaign. Customers are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to provide them with immediate results, and brands need to be there to serve them.